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According to the Global Times, US Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin held a ministerial-level "2+2" meeting with visiting Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Michael Mars in Annapolis, Maryland on the 6th local time. According to Reuters, the US Embassy previously issued a statement saying that Blinken and Austin look forward to strengthening cooperation with Australia on a series of global and regional issues and further deepening the alliance between the two countries. In addition, the US-Australia alliance has made significant progress in many areas, including continued cooperation in military posture, defense industrial base integration, and advanced capabilities.

On the South China Sea issue, the positive stance of the United States and Australia has become increasingly evident. Australia has always played the role of "Southern Anchor" in the United States' Asia-Pacific strategy, but observers point out that since the Biden administration took office, especially after the establishment of the "Ocus" partnership between the United States, Britain and Australia, this role is shifting to "Southern Spear". Against the backdrop of the United States' promotion of the "Indo-Pacific Strategy", its expansion of power and the reshaping of its alliance relations have made the United States' dependence on Australia more significant. Recently, the interactions between the two countries' senior officials have been frequent, which can be described as "close". Therefore, in addition to continuing the previous cooperative tone, this meeting may have a "wait-and-see" attitude, and both sides will examine their respective political dynamics and foreign policy trends.

Recently, the Philippines held joint military exercises with the United States, Canada and Australia in the South China Sea, which attracted widespread attention. According to the website of the U.S. Naval Association, during the four-nation joint exercise, China sent four warships to appear near the exercise area. The picture shows that when the Canadian Navy frigate was preparing to take off its ship-borne helicopter, a Chinese Navy Type 056A frigate appeared nearby and remained present throughout the exercise. The U.S. military also released a photo showing that the Chinese frigate "accompanied" the four-nation fleet of the United States, the Philippines, Canada and Australia, and pointed out that helicopter take-off and landing operations were also carried out on the Chinese Navy frigate.